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Choose Champion Build:
-
AP Mid
-
Top
-
Support
Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Ignite
Items
Ability Order
Gathering Fire (PASSIVE)
Karma Passive Ability
Intro

Welcome to my
Karma guide! If you want to play a champion that can be played as an AP carry or Support then
Karma is a good pick! After her rework,
Karma has lost some good things (her heal) and some bad things (that ugly chain). This guide is here to help you get on track and be a successful
Karma player.
What I personally like about this guide is that my build always gives you different choices of how to build your items. You can choose either
Rylai's Crystal Scepter or
Rod of Ages.
Liandry's Anguish or
Morellonomicon. Your choice of how you want your game to go. Plenty of freedom and either pick is a good one.
Why did I make a
Karma guide? I found all the
Karma guides at the time outdated and poorly written, so I decided to make my own.
Guide Notes:
- Matchups is up next!~




What I personally like about this guide is that my build always gives you different choices of how to build your items. You can choose either




Why did I make a


Guide Notes:
- Matchups is up next!~

Pros
+ Can farm from far away with ![]() + ![]() + Has a spamable Q. + Can be played as a support too. + Has a large shield ( ![]() + Can be a bully in lane if you choose to be. + Brings great utility to the team. |
Cons
- Really squishy. - Lacks Hard CC. - Farm dependent. - Doesn't heal others anymore... - Needs practice to learn all abilities. |

Offensive Masteries
![]() |
SPACE | 5% Cooldown Reduction when maxed out. | SPACE |
![]() |
SPACE | A small boost to last hit minions for. | SPACE |
![]() |
SPACE | 16AP at level 18. This gives you a nice boost at the start of the game combined with runes. | SPACE |
![]() |
SPACE | Grants 2 Health and 1 Mana when killing a unit. Combine this with [Doran's Ring]] for 5 Mana a kill. | SPACE |
![]() |
SPACE | 8 AP right off the bat. Of course every AP carry needs AP. | SPACE |
![]() |
SPACE | A good boost to help you kill your opponent in lane. | SPACE |
![]() |
SPACE | Increases your ability power by 5% when maxed out. | SPACE |
![]() |
SPACE | Heals you when you kill a champion. | SPACE |
![]() |
SPACE | 6% Armor and Magic Penetration. | SPACE |
![]() |
SPACE | This really helps with your farming as you continue to build AP. | SPACE |

Utility Masteries
![]() |
SPACE | Faster to get back to base, the faster you can get back to lane. | SPACE |
![]() |
SPACE |
3 Mana Regen. This will help you sustain. Awesome combined with ![]() |
SPACE |
![]() |
SPACE | This is a nice mastery. Any summoner spell's cooldown will be reduced by 10% if maxed. | SPACE |
![]() |
SPACE |
With this, Blue buff last longer. Blue buff is awesome on ![]() |
SPACE |

Preferred Runes
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration:
With these runes you got some nice magic penetration which helps a lot throughout the whole game. In my opinion, these are the only viable Marks for mages.Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power:
SinceKarma isn't a AD champion (obviously). We can use these to build up her magic damage. With these, you will have a nice amount of AP at the start of the match.
Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration:
I take 9xGreater Seal of Mana Regeneration because
Karma can be very mana hungry. I do not recommend taking
Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration, because from the moment you have your
Athene's Unholy Grail, mana won't be such a problem anymore. I really recommend taking flat instead of scaling.
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power:
You may wonder why I go for flat AP and not for AP/lvl well that's because AP/lvl Quintessences are pretty bad they won't be better than the flat ones until lvl 12.
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power great for some more early damage.

Other Marks
-
For really any AP Carry, the only marks you should use are
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration.

Other Seals
Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration DOES give out a little bit more mana regen but it takes you being level 18 to get it all. I take 9x
Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration because
Karma can be very mana hungry. Once again, I do not recommend taking
Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration, because from the moment you have your
Athene's Unholy Grail mana won't be such a problem anymore. I really recommend taking these. If you worry about mana alot, go for the
Rod of Ages build.
Greater Seal of Armor is an option if you wish to play the support role. She IS pretty squishy after all.

Other Glyphs
-
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist is an option if the enemy team is bombarded with AP casters.
Karma IS pretty squishy. I personally wouldn't use it. But I've see it as an option if you're going to get bursted.

Other Quints
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed is always a bonus to have that extra movement. Being a fast champion is ALWAYS fun. :P

The Pure

Always a must on
Karma in my opinion. You're way squishy, and though you may have a decent range, once you get into melee distance of someone like
Master Yi or
Jax you're insta-dead unless you get help from teammates or something. This hopefully puts some distance between you so you can get off a
Inner Flame or
Defiance.






This can be useful for ganking. Make sure your teammate wards the enemy bush by their tower and when they get pushed you can
Teleport to it and gank them from behind. This is more effective if you are premade or the team is good with teamwork overall. If you are playing with friends I would recommend trying it if you feel you can go without
Ignite (I wouldn't really recommend removing Flash).



It's
Ignite. Use it if your combo just wasn't enough and your enemy is as sure as yours even if they try to flash to safety. Combined with the
Summoner's Wrath
mastery this gives you a small boost in power while on CD.



The Limbo

Since this guide is pushed towards being an AP carry, this ability should only be used when supporting. It's great for the bot lane, but not much else.
Heal was greatly improved and is now very useful for supports because it does what any team needs: healing.
Heal compliments
Karma's abilities specially well due to her lack of decent healing spells other than her
Mantra'd
Focused Resolve. A good combo to heal up while in a teamfight is
Defiance,
Heal,
Focused Resolve. This combo is really nice if you have a
Will of the Ancients too! Don't forget that now that
Heal gives you a speed boost, it's alot better.














Being a support is all about providing utility for your team, and almost neutralizing an enemy is a very good spell to have and can turn battles around or ensure a kill. There should be at least one
Exhaust on your team, so if no one's taking it you should consider it.


The Unholy!
Everything Else. For example, choose
Revive and
Smite in a ranked game. You won't get very many fans. <-- LOL See what I did there?!
Note:
Clarity is completely useless late game because
Rod of Ages gives you plenty of mana and
Athene's Unholy Grail gives you plenty of mana restoration. If you're afraid of being mana hungry then go for the
Rod of Ages route. Just don't get
Clarity.


Note:






(Passive)
-
Damaging enemy champions with abilities refreshes 2 seconds of
Mantra's cooldown, and half that amount on basic attacks against enemy champions.
Tips
- ... Hit your enemy champions with your abilities or autoattacks to lower
Mantra's cooldown.

Tips
- ... Hit your enemy champions with your abilities or autoattacks to lower


(Q)
Fires a blast of energy that explodes on enemy contact dealing 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 (+60% of ability power) magic damage to enemies in the area and slowing them by 25% for 1.25 seconds.
Mantra Version
Tips
- Since this slows the enemy after getting hit by it, try using this in a chase to help your teammates catch the enemy.
-Using the
Mantra version of this is very useful in teamfights.
- Aiming at little clumps of minions can damage them all. Remember
Inner Flame won't damage the minions in the back. It explodes at the first enemy it touches.
-This is really your only real harassing tool. Use it wisely.
-Afraid to facecheck a brush? Use this! You can hear the detonation sound if it hits an enemy.

Tips
- Since this slows the enemy after getting hit by it, try using this in a chase to help your teammates catch the enemy.
-Using the

- Aiming at little clumps of minions can damage them all. Remember

-This is really your only real harassing tool. Use it wisely.
-Afraid to facecheck a brush? Use this! You can hear the detonation sound if it hits an enemy.

(W)
Links
Karma to target enemy champion, revealing them and dealing 60/110/160/210/260 (+.6 AP) magic damage over 2 seconds, rooting them in place for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds if the link is not broken.
Mantra Version
Tips
- This isn't exactly a reliable damaging or healing spell, but it is good for melee range champions. Coming too close allows you to link them, then root them afterwards.
-
Focused Resolve is a excellent ability with
Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Once they're linked, they are also slowed -making it difficult for them to escape the root at the end.
- Don't get me wrong, I TRIED using this offensively to kill an enemy by myself but it just isn't enough. Use this if someone like
Akali jumps on a enemy with their ultimate. The root helps your team even further.
-A good combo to heal: Use
Inspire then
Renewal so you are shielded from any incoming damage while you're trying to maintain the link.
-If you catch an enemy out of position, use this to root them and have your team jump of him/her for the kill.
-If someone like
Fizz,
Akali, or
Diana jumps on you by your turret, the best way to go is to use
Inspire,
Focused Resolve, and a
Inner Flame.


Tips
- This isn't exactly a reliable damaging or healing spell, but it is good for melee range champions. Coming too close allows you to link them, then root them afterwards.
-


- Don't get me wrong, I TRIED using this offensively to kill an enemy by myself but it just isn't enough. Use this if someone like

-A good combo to heal: Use


-If you catch an enemy out of position, use this to root them and have your team jump of him/her for the kill.
-If someone like







(E)
Target ally gains a shield, granting 20/30/40/50/60% movement speed for 1.25 seconds and absorbing 80/120/160/200/240 (+.5 AP) damage for 4 seconds.
Mantra Version
Tips
- Always use the
Mantra'd version (
Defiance) in a teamfight. Enemies around your target get damaged. Allies close to your target also get shielded and hasted. Please be cautious on your placement. You must be around other allies you shielded for your to get a shield too..
-Perhaps you choose
Inspire first for whatever reason. This can be useful to your jungler if you have one. Place
Inspire on your jungler to help shield a little damage while they're fighting Blue or Red buff.
-If you are in the middle of being ganked, supply yourself with a shield, and try to root the most jungler with
Focused Resolve.

Tips
- Always use the


-Perhaps you choose


-If you are in the middle of being ganked, supply yourself with a shield, and try to root the most jungler with


(R)

( Leveling this up increases the effects of the Mantra bonus )
Tips
- Know your abilities so you can correspond them along to the situation.
- Your passive,


-




Play Passive.
Spaaace
_____It's important that you play passive with
Karma at the start of the game. Don't use any abilities too frequently and just try to focus on ONLY last hitting minions in your lane for the gold income. If the minions are too high of health at the moment for you to last hit, I fire an
Inner Flame to harass my enemy a bit. You don't want to use your
Inner Flame unless you know for sure it will hit. Why? Because It's best to just sit back and last hit until you are level 5. At level 5 is when you want to start to harass the enemy champ with E and Q. Always make sure if you land one of these abilities, you run in and try to auto-attack to take advantage of the extra damage on your passive. Once you get your
Chalice of Harmony, it is now okay to use abilities frequently. Poke and Harass the enemy as much as you can to the point where they are low. But keep last hitting. Remember. Do NOT use your
Mantra charge while laning unless you know it will kill, deal a hefty amount or save your life. You need a
Mantra charge just incase of a gank or if your opponent decides to use their combo on you. It's actually pretty funny to see a jungler like
Kha'Zix fail his gank because I used
Inspire,
Focused Resolve, and a
Inner Flame.
_____Make sure to keep your distance and keep auto-attacking the minions. Your
Inner Flame (which you should already have at level 1) has plenty of range. If the enemy is in that range, make sure to launch it to deal some damage. That might make them keep THEIR range instead -leaving you to farm. If there isn't an enemy in the area, do NOT use your abilities too often. You want to make sure that you save your mana. As soon as you have enough gold to port back, buy a
Chalice of Harmony and/or
Boots.
_____It's important that you play passive with










_____Make sure to keep your distance and keep auto-attacking the minions. Your



Typical Harass Combo/Escape from a gank

_____As usual, roaming is done best when your lane is pushed (preferably to their tower).


What I like to do as I approach top lane, is I use




Right now in your lane you might want to keep farming until you get to buy a



If your enemy is still in lane, LOL spam


Remember to stay at the back during fights and definitely try not to get caught. Use
Inspire like no tomorrow on your weakest ally for them to catch up with the trade.


_____Again, I cannot stress how important it is for you to stay at the back of fights. If you go in, you will often just melt due to being at no further advantage from being right in the fight.
_____If you have blue buff, it is important to continuously poke with your Q. As
Inner Flame does significantly more damage with the
Mantra, you can halve the health of others or even kill squishy champions before the fight has even began. Your job is to wear down the other team with your utility kit and support at the same time with your shield.
_____As mentioned before, keeping wards by blue buff, red buff, Dragon and now Baron are all extremely important.
_____ I would recommend destroying the first mid tower before you go off in other lanes unless its a emergency. But when your whole team is clumped together fighting, use
Defiance for a excellent advantage. If the enemy is low and you are not, the best thing to do is to try and destroy them with
Inner Flames and link them with
Focused Resolve.
_____If you have blue buff, it is important to continuously poke with your Q. As


_____As mentioned before, keeping wards by blue buff, red buff, Dragon and now Baron are all extremely important.
_____ I would recommend destroying the first mid tower before you go off in other lanes unless its a emergency. But when your whole team is clumped together fighting, use




Start with:
spaaace
We take a
Faerie Charm 5
Health Potions and 2
Mana Potions because we want to stay in lane as long as possible and farm. If you want, you can buy 2
Faerie Charms, a sight ward and a potion of your choice if you feel you have already won your lane. We don't need to start with boots because your
Inner Flame has enough range for you to poke and farm safely.
spaaace




Next:
spaaace
We need
Chalice of Harmony for those iffy mana problems after spamming too many
Inner Flames or using
Inspire too much. The boots are so you can run away quicker because once you get caught by someone like
Master Yi, you will hurt.
spaaace



Get a staple item:
spaaace
This is the item you will have with you for a while that will help you until you get one of your more powerful items.
Doran's Ring is if you're behind or above in creep score. Catalyst the protector is if you would like
Karma to have a bigger mana and health pool. Seems logical since it builds into
Rod of Ages.
Frostfang is veryyy useful. It builds into a variety of useful items and it can help you get to your
Rabadon's Deathcap. Also, if you have been pushed to your tower, you can autoattack for gold. Although if you choose Catalyst the Protector, you'll lose your extra gold from not buying
Frostfang. But its okay if you choose Catalyst if you're a new player. The
Frostfang route is usually for advanced players who can manage their mana better and play safer.
spaaace






Must Buy Items:
spaaace
These are one of the best two items on
Karma. Why? Because
Karma is a AP carry of course!
Athene's Unholy Grail supplies everything you need while mid. Mana, Magic Resist, AP, and a sweet passive that gives you more mana.
Rabadon's Deathcap is a must for all AP carries. It just is. It gives you a TON of AP.
spaaace



One Utility & Damage Item:
spaaace
Choose one of these.
Liandry's Anguish gives you that extra magic penetration.
Deathfire Grasp is if you want another item that gives you 100 more AP. The passive can be put to use if the enemy team has someone like
Jax. Since they're in your range, that active can be put to use. The cooldown reduction is also nice. I chose
Morellonomicon to be here because it grants something
Karma needs. Cooldown reduction. Also, since you are the one to be helping out in teamfights, its passive can help reduce the effect of their heals.





One Defensive Damage Item:
spaaace
These two are really good as far as I'm concerned.
Rod of Ages builds straight from one of your staple items. It gives you some health, mana, and AP. Most who aren't a fan of
Rylai's Crystal Scepter go for this. As for me, I choose
Rylai's Crystal Scepter. It's passive ability goes well with your
Focused Resolve. But it doesn't just proc with that, of course it procs with all your other abilities. Another reason why I choose Rylai's is because
Defiance damages all enemies in the range. In teamfights, its mostly just a sh*tsstorm of fighting where one last living teammate ends up running away to prevent their death. Well, a
Mantra'd
Inspire hinders that opportunity.
spaaace






One Final Item:
spaaace
I chose these three because they can apply to the situation of the game.
Void Staff is pushing the amount of Magic Penetration you already have to a great amount -also granting AP.
Zhonya's Hourglass gives you a nice amount of armor plus a passive that protects you for a few seconds. Get this if the other team has more AD champions. Finally,
Abyssal Mask is if the other team has alot of AP champions. Its passive also works well because she can have a bigger effect on teamfights.





This if you get annoyed by annoying spells like
Morgana's
Soul Shackles,
Karthus's
Requiem, or maybe even
Ahri's
Charm. This is really a ideal choice if the enemy team has nothing but AP casters.
spaaace






A rather good item, if you are doing very well. When it hits 20 stacks, and you have a
Rabadon's Deathcap. Its also very easy to hold the stacks since you have such a long range, so you can escape easily, but also secure kills and/or assist. I don't like this item, just because of its potential to fail you, if your doing poorly (For example 0/3/2 you would have no stacks and only have 20+ AP). But if you know your just to good to die, go for it.
spaaace

This is a great alternate item. It goes along great with
Defiance because you can heal off some of the damage you took just by shielding your team. Consider this if you have a champions on your team that have DoT spells like
Glacial Storm or
Miasma. Very useful if your team has been getting in a ton of teamfights.
spaaace



This actually isn't a bad idea when playing support. In fact, its a great item to have while playing support. It builds straight from
Chalice of Harmony, rids you of your mana problem and you can remove a debuff AND heal your target. Since
Karma can't naturally heal anyone other than herself, this is something to think about.
spaaace


If your top laner doesn't have one, you should get this as it helps a ton in teamfights. It's also really good support item for
Karma since she is always the one to help out in teamfights. You even get a bonus shield aside from your own. So if you have no
Mantra charge, you can shield an ally and use
Locket of the Iron Solari for yourself.




_____Unlike
Annie or
Malzahar,
Karma lacks huge amounts of burst without
Inner Flame or a
Mantra'd ability in general. Most will still use
Soulflare to farm creeps (I do sometimes if I really wanna hurry the lane up). And why not? It deals enough damage for you to last hit since you can just auto attack. Though creep farming is important, this is very inefficient. But don't just do this all game. Later in the game
Soulflare does alot of damage to creep, and you can farm effectively. If you would like to harass, use
Inspire and auto attacks in order to deal easy damage and receive little to nothing back at all.
When you have your
Chalice of Harmony, it is now safer to start using you abilities more often. Use
Inspire to protect yourself and
Focused Resolve to deal a little extra damage.








When you have your




First of all. Be tactical. If you haven't warded the two mid bushes then you should resort to the picture below.
Green means that its okay to farm without worries.
Red is "GTF BACK!" if an enemy is mia.



But first. Here are some tips if you don't wanna get ganked by the enemy jungler....
- Map Awareness! <--- If you're paranoid like me when you see a enemy not in their lane via the map. Run back to green zone of your lane if you think you cant handle a potential ganker.
- Use wards! <--- Basically, if the mid bushes are warded. Screw the safety zone chart and just look at the map. If a enemy is heading toward mid you can easily run back to the green zone on your own.
- Have members call mias! <--Get the heads up and be aware.
- Use tab! <--Pressing the tab key shows the scores of ALL players. It even shows how long a enemy is dead! You can manipulate this to be in the red zone without worry. So as long as your aware of whos in their lane, you can destroy that turret!
- Use Smart Ping <-- Thank god they added this in. Your allies can alert you more specifically.
To NEVER get ganked. Use all four methods. You may scroll down to the "Warding" Section if you have no clue on where to ward.

Early game, try staying in the brush while your carry farms and remember to


When engaging, use




Make sure to ward the bush closest to dragon or use a trinket.

In a teamfights you should never stand and keep auto attack unless its 5 Vs. 1. You HAVE to move in order to be in the right position to either


You see an allied champion attacking one last enemy with equal health? What do you do?:
A. Run away and let your teammate fight for him/herself.
B.



C. Only

Now, with a little common sense. If you chose the answer "B", then you're on the right track.
Of course if you see your teammates being weed-whacked down one by one, your job is to hover outside of the fight,


Now to be on the offensive side. Your job is to automatically position yourself and use




- March 28, 2013 - Guide Launched!
- March 30, 2013 - Removed Support Section due to popular demand.
- March 31, 2013 - Added beautiful headers thanks to Xiaowiriamu!
- March 31, 2013 - Added in the "Items" & "Situational Items" section.
- March 31, 2013 - Made it as the #1
Karma guide on Mobafire!
- April 10, 2013 - Support Build is in!
- January 27, 2014 - Matchups Section is in progress
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